When did you start your career at Sky?
I started my journey at Sky in September 2015 with the Contact Centre Customer Service Apprentice programme. My programme was for 12 months, and I completed the apprenticeship in September 2016.
Why did you decide on becoming Contact Centre Apprentice?
I decided on becoming a Contact Centre apprentice when I wasn’t really getting any further in the job that I had done previously. There wasn’t much opportunity, so when that did come up and I did look into the apprenticeship programme more. Sky being a big company that is, I think it was just a no-brainer for me and it was just a natural route that I decided to go down.
What training did you receive on the Contact Centre Apprentice?
When we first started training, we went into a six week training block to become a Sky Advisor. We learned about the very beginnings of Sky and what we’d be doing as an advisor. Then, we went on to learn about the role and the different things that make that up.
During my time so far at Sky, there have always opportunities to go and expand your knowledge on one particular topic; such as billing, or if you wanted to be upskilled in something else. There are so many different roles in Sky that you would never think that Sky needs, but I think until you get to this side of the business you realize the amount of roles, departments, jobs and teams that are out there.
I think when you’ve got a specific skill set or a specific trade that you know that you are good at or you’re interested in, there’s always something at Sky for that.
What is your current job at Sky and how did you get into it?
My job at the moment is a Customer Engagement Specialist on the Sky community. I’m one of the Customer Managers that manages, moderates and keeps on top of the Sky community, which is our customer-to-customer public forum.
Sky Livingston put on a job fair, which was a good opportunity for me to put myself out there and speak to the different departments. I spoke with the community team, put my interest in, took one of their flyers and went back to have a good think about kind of what I want to do.
That then led me to send an email to the community team – what I was then offered was a 12 week ‘Step Into Support’ secondment. During this time I learned different skills and eventually and was kept on for the year.
What support have you received at Sky?
The support we have available at Sky; you’ll always have your manager for support whether that be through the workplace, emotional support. There’s also dedicated people in your department that you can go to if you need help, support, just some extra information.
The work-life balance in Sky; there’s always somebody that’ll take your hand and take you through whatever you’re going through. Regardless if that’s something in work, something at Sky, and I think that’s what makes up the big Sky family and friends that you do make along the way.
With my background of my mum working in the exact same department as I, there were already people that I knew. Since we did have these buddies and we did have that extra dedicated support that were given throughout the floor, you make friends anyway.
Even when you do move on, you then meet another team and you meet another group of people.
What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
The proudest moment of my career, number one, would have have to have been I was graduating from the apprenticeship. We were flown into Osterley and provided our qualification from Kay Burley. We got a tour in the Osterley Studios, which was really exciting.
If you were to ask me about my biggest accomplishment today it’s probably in my new role, where I’ve been reporting for the business on different projects that have come up. Solely reporting from me on the social media channels, so they’ll be going to some really important people.
Would you recommend the Contact Centre Apprenticeship at Sky?
I would absolutely recommend the Contact Centre Apprenticeship, I could go into so many different reasons as to why I think it’s a really good place to start your career; it’s a really good place to not necessarily start your career, but take your skills that you’ve already built somewhere else and just amplify them even more.
It’s a really good place to come and meet people, gain some money, learn some new things. I genuinely think I could go on, I could ramble on about why you should do the apprenticeship, but there’s too many too much!
